November 30, 2017 at 2:37 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Appearance of the Flat File Wizard.
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
December 2, 2017 at 8:19 am
Perhaps it is a continuation of MS supporting both R and Python; both of which seem to handle importing flat files very well, even chaining multiple flat file imports in multiple formats into a dataframe or multiple dataframes. As a beginner in both R and Python I think I will experiment with this to see if I am assuming too much and should let the experts comment on this.
Which reminds me of a saying a true expert in Machine Language and Assembler programming, I had the privilege of working with in the 70's, said about experts, himself included:
"An ex is a has-been, out standing in a field somewhere and a spert is a drip under pressure"
December 2, 2017 at 11:00 am
You could be right. Data import into R is much less fussy. The SSMS team used the Microsoft Program Synthesis using Examples (PROSE) SDK to take raw semi-structured data and identify patterns in it to perform predictive file splitting, I suspect we will see this type of feature used a lot. The PowerShell convertfrom-string cmdlet is worth checking out as a way of importing awkward text into databases. The one in SSMS needs a fair bit of work. The version I tried couldn’t import a file with a single column in (a simple list of words)
Best wishes,
Phil Factor
December 2, 2017 at 4:54 pm
Microsoft, like many companies, create products and features that tick all the boxes, but fail to deliver the correct value.
I will be so happy to see these companies awaken to the fact that every user needs to be guided to create *REPEATABLE* workflows that can become automated the more you do them.
The simplest example would be to use GUIs to create scripts, show the script to the user (and/or save them in a default folder), then perform the steps by running them using a command line that also was provided.
The amount of extra effort to do this would be so small, but the payback would be so enormous.
Just look at things like kubectl. You can "apply" a configuration to create, or update. If you apply a folder name, it'll do all configurations in that folder. Highly repeatable, highly automatable.
A great example where Microsoft did it closer to right is the powershell ISE toolbar "Commands". Use it to build a command with arguments, then copy/insert it into the script. Great stuff.
John
December 4, 2017 at 3:09 am
crlewis42 - Saturday, December 2, 2017 8:19 AMWhich reminds me of a saying a true expert in Machine Language and Assembler programming, I had the privilege of working with in the 70's, said about experts, himself included:
"An ex is a has-been, out standing in a field somewhere and a spert is a drip under pressure"
I can remember Blaster Bates (Demolition and explosive expert) saying that.
December 4, 2017 at 3:14 am
Take a look at http://www.aquafold.com/aquadatastudio. It makes a decent fist of being a DB IDE for multiple DB platforms. I think SSMS needs to give a nod to other platforms simply because the days of a single corporate DB platform are fading. If the tooling makes it easy to support SQL Server AND a.n.other then it lessens the argument for ditching SQL Server.
Note that the argument may not make sense but may still be lost.
December 4, 2017 at 7:15 am
The first 2 ascii flat files I tried to import it threw up on both times. Seriously? Remove a working part of SSMS and put in something that cannot handle simple imports?
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